Heroes at Hogwarts: Book One, The Order of the Phoenix
by t0biastrisf0ursix
Summary: Percabeth!Caleo! A week after the Giant War, the Seven must go on a quest involving a different world that needs them- the wizarding world. They must protect and help the Trio in their battle against Voldemort, while struggling to recover from their own war that had left them so broken- especially Percy, Annabeth, & Nico. But how can they do so without revealing they're demigods?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Oh gods, I wished I had been the genius that Rick Riordan and J.K. Rowling are. Unfortunately, evidently I am just a 14 year old girl who's obsessed with books and wants to be a writer someday.  
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**A/N: This is my first fanfiction, so please be nice! I'm also new here, so any help promoting my story would be very appreciated.**

**So, for the background: everything happened as it's written in the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series, up until the Mark of Athena. Everything else that happened (especially in Tartarus) I made up or changed from the story- all will be explained later. || For Harry Potter, everything happened exactly as written in the books up until the beginning of the Order of the Pheonix. This story takes place during Harry, Ron, and Hermione's fifth year at Hogwarts. There is a lot of Percabeth and Caleo in this fanfic. :) **

**Summary:**

**Only a week after the war against Gaea, the Seven are called yet again to another quest. But this one is like no other, involving a completely different world that desperately needs the assistance of these heroes- the wizarding world.**  
**The Seven must protect the golden trio and help them in their battle against Voldemort. They attend Hogwarts as American exchange students to keep an eye on Harry, Ron, and Hermione.**  
**But there's a catch- it is vital that they hide the fact that they're demigods from all the students at Hogwarts. And Percy and Annabeth are still recovering form their traumatic experiences in Tartarus and defeating Gaea themselves. How will the Seven help the Trio without revealing who they are?**

**Percy's POV:**

I sat on the beach, every muscle completely still, despite my ADHD. The water calmed me, soothing the images flashing through my tortured mind almost as effectively as a word or touch from my beautiful girlfriend.

For a week after that horrible war, I had spent nearly all my time either at the beach, with Annabeth, or both. When not alone with her or by the water, every waking moment was agony. Somehow I managed to keep up my sassy and cheerful, carefree personality around other people. But I knew, and everyone who knows me knew, that I was not, by any stretch of the imagination, okay. Even those who didn't know where Annabeth and I had been knew. Perhaps it was my lack of snide remarks. Perhaps it was my uncharacteristic silence. Perhaps it was the way my tone had changed into one far more serious. Perhaps it was the fact that Annabeth and I were hardly seen out of each other's company. If we were seen at all. Whatever the case, I was a changed man. I had lost so much to save the world. I was broken, perhaps beyond repair.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain." I heard a quiet and familiar voice come from behind me. It was a little after 1:00, and I hadn't seen a soul since lunch. I glanced up, cracking a small smile as my entire world sat down besides me.

"Hey." I replied softly as she curled up against my body. I draped one arm around her, running my fingers through her lusciously soft and curly blonde hair that broke all the stereotypes. We watched the horizon, each wrapped up in our own thoughts.

**Annabeth's POV:**

My Seaweed Brain. I couldn't believe that we were both alive, the war was over, and we were _finally_ together. Aphrodite had even vowed to leave us alone after six years of heartbreak and struggle. Not that I expected her to keep her promise. But I knew that, despite that, Percy and I would never be the same again.

The death of Percy's mom really hit him hard. She had been the only one there for him for the first twelve years of his life, and had stuck with him until the end. By mortal standards, she was the ideal parent. I was there when she died. After we defeated _Gaea_, well... it was a telekhine that had done it. It had been beyond horrible. There was nothing any of the gods could do. Percy had been so devastated that my heart had shattered along with the crumpled expression on that once innocent and naive face. And I felt like a part of me had died with Sally, as well. She had been like my second mom, more of one than my stepmother, or even Athena, ever was. When Percy had... disappeared... she and I had comforted each other. We had gotten each other through the nightmare-filled hours, days, and weeks of searching. And she had always been my biggest supporter when it came to my romantic relationship with Percy.

Thinking about all this, I felt myself shaking ever so slightly, my breathing increasing in frequency and volume. Percy immediately wrapped his arms around my quivering form. They were exceedingly gentle for a demigod so powerful. And his power had only increased with the tragedies of the war.

"Annabeth... it's okay... I'm here. I'm here and I will never _ever_ leave you..."

I took a shaky breath. Percy shushed me before I could apologize. I snuggled closer to him, and closed my eyes, breathing in the ocean smell coming from both the water and my boyfriend that had become my favorite scent, the sound of the waves that had become the most soothing lullaby whispering in my ear. I closed my eyes with an almost contented sigh. Slowly... I drifted off to sleep...

Suddenly, a huge wave crashed over my head. When I emerged, spluttering and coughing, yet somehow completely dry, I saw Percy with a hint of that old mischievous glint in his eyes, grinning.

"Perseus Jackson!" I gasped in mock fury. I stood up, marched over to him, and pushed him into the water. He splashed me, humoring me. Sure enough, when I splashed back with a small smile on my face, he rose up on a massive summoned wave. I shrieked, but he simply scooped me up carefully and we rode the wave out into the swirling blue waters of the ocean.

"You just _had_ to wake me up." I grumbled, but I couldn't suppress my smile. He grinned at me but didn't say anything. I could tell he was relaxed; he was only ever relaxed when he was alone by the ocean or with me, after that final battle. I was so glad that Percy still had his old playfulness inside him, even if it was only when we were alone. But this also reminded me of how much he had changed. He held me, cruising on a tsunami-sized wave effortlessly- a feat he could have never achieved just a year before. After the war, he could perform stunts like this and use his water powers with effortless efficiency, because of what had happened in Tar-tar-tartarus... I couldn't even think the word without faltering.

After several minutes of this glorious, peaceful cruising, Percy stopped for a moment, the crystal clear water surging all around us. He frowned in concetration, and tilted his head slightly. I was pretty sure he was talking to Blackjack. His powers of communication with equestrian animals, both mythical and natural, had increased along with his water abilities. He could communicate with them from further distances now.

"Hey, Annabeth, Chiron wants us to go to the Big House." He said once he was finished, the temporarily cheery light fading from his eyes. I frowned. What could Chiron want? Although he was practically like my second father, he'd made a point to give me and Percy space since we'd come back, and to have the others give us space. If he wanted to talk to us all of a sudden now, it had to be important...

**A/N:** **Please review for more updates! Plot suggestions are welcome, and if you see any typos/errors please let me know. Oh, and sorry this chapter is so short. It is the introduction, after all. I know some people are able to write monster, 10,000 word chapters. XD  
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	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I know the story is pretty boring right now, but bear with me. It's gotten a lot of good reviews and votes on wattpad, and I promise the story line will get better soon. And the chapters will get longer.  
**

**Piper's POV:**

"What's taking Percy and Annabeth so long?" Jason murmured. Him, Leo, Chiron, and I were all waiting impatiently in the Big House. The door creaked open, and the two heroes stepped in the room, looking wary.

"Oh, finally. What in the name of Hephaestus took you two so long, lovebirds?" Leo threw his screwdriver at Percy, which he easily dodged.

"Well, _excuse_ me for relaxing." Percy replied with a grin. "So, what's up? Why are we here?" His tone was deceptively cheerful. But I knew him well enough to see that he was tingling with apprehension. Chiron hesitated.

"Well... has anyone heard of witches and wizards?" Chiron finally spoke up after the two latecomers sat down. My heart sank. I had been seeing images in Katoptris that had been... unsettling, to say the least. This may have explained some of the images I'd seen, and I had to say I wasn't very excited. Percy broke the silence with a derisive laugh.

"Say what? You can't be... oh... you _are_ serious..." Percy faltered when he saw Chiron's grim expression.

"I'm afraid so, Mr. Jackson."

Annabeth spoke up. "I've heard of something like this before." All of us stared at her in disbelief. Witches? Wizards? Even Leo was paying attention now. "Didn't Hecate bless some mortals with magic a long time ago?"

"Oh yeah, I've heard of that, too! Reyna and I discussed it a bit, back when I was still a praetor." I tensed up ever so slightly when Reyna was mentioned. I knew Jason chose me over his life at Camp Jupiter, but I still felt uncomfortable when he said 'Reyna' so wistfully.

"Yes. Those stories are true, and those group of mortals called themselves witches and wizards. Now, their numbers have grown over the genertions, and their population is spread throughout the world. They even have schools for magic. My good friend Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of a school called Hogwarts-" Leo snickered and I elbowed him, "- in England, has asked me to send my strongest to protect and assist a certain wizard named Harry Potter and his two other friends. The fate of the world depends on his mission."

**Jason's POV:**

"Whoa, wait. Protect? Fate of the world? That sounds like a _quest_." Percy's good-natured expression darkened. "I thought we were on a _break._" He said angrily, his eyes narrowing at Chiron. I agreed. Really? Another quest after we- especially Percy and Annabeth- almost single-handedly won a war against _Gaea_, saving civilization as we know it?

"I'm sorry. Harry Potter is in grave danger from an evil wizard who has just risen again this June." Chiron said. We all opened our mouths to ask questions, but Chiron continued on. "I really don't have time to explain, I'm sorry. You'll learn everything when you get to London." Piper made a little noise of excitement, and I smiled fondly at her. She had always wanted to go to England. "You'll be spending a week in a safe house created out of the Mist by Hecate. There, you will learn and study the wizarding world. A daughter of Hecate, Ms. Joanne Rowling, has written four books on Harry's life so far and explaining the ways of the wizarding world. You will read and become familiar with it- it's in Ancient Greek, Annabeth." Chiron rushed to say before Annabeth could protest. "Now, this quest won't be nearly as dangerous as the others you have just completed." Chiron reassured us. Percy didn't look convinced. "For one thing, the dark wizards and witches cannot kill you with their killing curse- you will simply go unconscious and be magically transported back here an hour after you've been struck with the curse. I won't lie- spells may harm you, and you may still die from any physical wound, but you will not be killed at the hands of a wand. This is because magical folk are still mortals, so their spells do not have as much of an effect on demigods. But be cautioned that the same goes for the other way. Piper, your charmspeak won't work as effectively on magical folk. Nor will the Mist."

"Cool! Wands!" Leo exclaimed. "Do I get one? Can I do magic?" I glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. That was all he could think of? I had to admit I wasn't surprised.

"As a matter of fact, you do." Chiron opened up a drawer and pulled out five slim boxes, each labeled with one of our names. "Hecate will be granting you all magical powers for this quest, so you will appear to be witches and wizards. These wands were specifically made for the five of you. My other friend Ollivander has crafted them with your demigod powers and personalities in mind. Take good care of them- they may snap, and are very important. So BE CAREFUL."

"Why is everyone looking at me?" Percy grumbled, causing several in the room to smile. I took the electric-yellow box labeled with my name, and opened it to find, resting in soft velvet, an elegantly carved... stick. Still, I could have sworn it tingled in my hand when I picked it up gingerly.

"Alright, a couple more things. All of you will look like your fifteen-year-old selves for this quest so that you may be placed in the same year as Harry. Don't worry, your bodies will return to their normal ages when you return. Bear in mind that this quest may take up to three years."

"Wait, hold up. So we're gonna look like Hazel's age? Are she and Frank going? And _three years_? So I might be _20_ when i get back? Leo asked indignantly, in his usual rapid-fire way. I had to admit, being turned back into the age I was when my memories had been removed did not sound appealing. Fifteen was just out of that awkward stage of puberty. And I did not wish to return to that.

"Yes, your bodies are going to look fifteen years old- but your minds and memories will not be affected; yes, Hazel and Frank have already departed from Camp Jupiter; and yes- you, Jason, Piper, and Frank may come back 20 years old, and Annabeth and Percy may be 21 when they return. But don't worry, you can still visit camp every summer." Chiron attempted to make light of the situation. He sighed when we looked at him in disbelief. "And perhaps Hecate will restore you to your ages that you were at the start of the quest?" We were still unimpressed.

"Two more things, and you can decide if you're going." Chiron continued in a resigned sort of voice. "Now, you can quit the quest early if you smash these orbs." Chiron held out five glass balls, and we each took one. Percy looked as though he were going to smash his right then and there. But then, they disappeared. "They will reappear when you need them, much like the Hunter's bows." Chiron explained. "And the last thing- and perhaps the most important: you must not let anyone find out that you are demigods, or at least stall the moment for as long as you possibly can. Most of the staff at Hogwarts know, but nobody else. Understand?" We all nodded. "So... who's going?" Chiron asked.

**Leo's POV:**

"Me! Magic sounds cool! Plus, I can quit any time. I'm definitely going." I said immediately. Besides, I was a little tired of being the fifth wheel here... And learning magic might help me find a way to get back to Calypso. I was already able to Iris-message her thanks to the Archidemes sphere, but I wanted to see her. That was the one thing I resented Percy for- breaking Calypso's heart. Of course, I couldn't say any of this aloud. I think Piper and Annabeth already guessed what had happened, but the less people that knew, the better.

Piper and Jason exchanged a meaningful look. "Me and Jason will go as well." Piper told Chiron after a few moments. He smiled, then looked worriedly at Percy and Annabeth.

"No. No way! I am NOT going to some weirdo's school named after a pig disease to protect some random dude with a stick. Especially since it's a _quest_." Percy glared at all of us, holding Annabeth close. I had a hard time holding in my laugh from Percy's description of the quest. But then again, his reaction was horrible. I hated seeing the heroes of the universe looking so defeated and weak, as they did a lot after we had gotten back to Camp Half-Blood. Not to mention the nightmares they had... But we really did need them. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go on this quest myself if our most experienced fighters weren't present. Chiron sighed. We all knew those two were the strongest.

"Come on, Kelp Head." (we had learned a long time ago that only Annabeth called Percy Seaweed Brain) I could tell Piper was putting a bit of charmspeak into her words. "We need you and Annabeth! The world is counting on you two again. Your _friends_ are counting on you." she played to his fatal flaw. A little cruel, but certainly effective.

"Don't you _dare_ you charmspeak on me, Piper McClean." Percy glared and crossed his arms. I winked at Piper and she shot me an annoyed look. I'm just that incredibly charming. "Can't we at least have one year of peace before we have to fight another war?" Percy sighed. He looked about a million years old when he said that, and I have to admit, my gut wrenched in sympathy.

"Percy, if you go, you can leave at any time! Come on, join the dream Leo team!" I gave him the most pitiful look I could. Apparently it didn't work. Piper rolled her eyes at me and I stuck out my tongue at her. Annabeth finally spoke up.

"Percy... I think... maybe this quest will help us get over... everything that happened. And honestly, won't it be fun learning magic?" Annabeth said tentatively. I could tell she'd probably been thinking over her decision all this time, analyzing the pros and cons the entire time. Percy went silent, then sighed. I couldn't conceal a small grin. We all knew that Percy would do whatever Annabeth asked.

"Okay... but as soon as it gets dangerous we're leaving. And we are NOT going to be separated. Ever. Or I will quit immediately." Percy finally said fiercely. Chiron nodded. I could tell he was relieved. I mean, I was, too. We would probably fail without that gorgeously dangerous blonde planning everything, without Kelp Head shish-kabobbing everyone.

**Annabeth's POV:**

I was still thinking over my decision. I mean, I knew this quest was important, and I was sure we would succeed, but we might encounter monsters and life-threatening situations which would trigger memories...

Chiron seemed to be waiting for something. The five of us demigods sat in silence, waiting along with him without knowing what to expect.

Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light. I screamed, simply because I was startled. I've been pretty jumpy ever since Percy and I fell into... that monster infested pit. Percy got a wild look in his eyes, and brought out Riptide in a flash. I knew it was from my scream. He looked like he was back in... that place... I touched gently his arm to let him know I was alright, and gradually he returned to reality. Then I looked up. It was the goddess Hecate.

"I'm sorry I frightened you, dear." She said. Her voice sounded mysterious and powerful, yet dreamy at the same time. Her image kept shifting. I supposed it was her magic, coupled with the Mist. Percy gave her a glare that could stop a giant in its tracks.

"If you knew what we've been through-"

"Oh, but I do know, Perseus. And I'm very sorry, but there's not much time." She interrupted. "I'm here to send you on your quest." We nodded, and she waved her hand in a circular motion. Then something bizarre and completely unexpected happened.

Tendrils of Mist like creepy fog fingers shot out from the cloud around her, and wrapped around each of us individually. I was separated from Percy, and I had a mini-flashback of when we had been captured down there... and they had pulled us apart... I nearly panicked before Percy reached out and grabbed my hand. I couldn't see anything, but Percy squeezed my hand in understanding and reassurance, calming me. Finally, the Mist unwrapped around us and retreated back into the cloud surrounding the goddess of magic.

"Uhhhh, hey lady, what was that?" Leo asked in annoyance.

"Lady Hecate," Piper amended swiftly before the goddess could blast Leo for his disrespect.

"I have just given you all advanced magical power, and disguised the weapons of Leo, Piper, and Annabeth." she replied. I noticed Leo's tool belt had turned into a regular belt, and Piper pulled out a small hand mirror from her pocket that must have been Katoptris. Looking down, I noticed there was a silver charm bracelet on my wrist. On it were three sparkling charms- a Delta symbol which would probably expand into Daedalus' laptop (**A/N: I know Annabeth lost her laptop and dagger in Tartarus, but as I said, I made up what happened after the Mark of Athena**), a dagger charm, and even a New York Yankees cap charm- which was probably my invisibility hat. Hecate waited patiently while we marveled at the newly disguised weapons.

"Now, listen closely. As soon as I wave my hand again, you will be magically transported to a safe house in London, created by the Mist. Hazel has some limited control over the Mist, and as soon as you get there, she will help you learn how to return to the safe house at will, at any time during your quest. You will spend exactly a week at the house, practicing your magic and learning about the wizarding world. After that, someone will take you to a woman named Arabella Figg. Your mission will start- assist Harry Potter and his friends as best you can, and keep an eye out for trouble. Delay the moment when you have to tell them you are demigods for as long as possible. And above all, be careful. Although spells won't have the same effect on you and your life will not end if you are hit by the killing curse, never forget that you can still be fatally wounded by physical means. Now go, and good luck to you all." The goddess waved her hand. There was a loud popping sound, and everything went black.

**A/N: Please review! (I usually won't update this quickly but this chapter was already on wattpad.) I know it's kind of slow right now but I promise it'll get better... Oh, and if any of you like my story, I would really appreciate it if you could tell someone about it. :) You know, if you want to.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, a couple things. First, let me warn you that Percy will not be his usual sassy self for the first... 10 chapters or so. This is understandable as it's only been a week since he got out of Tartarus. (I don't know why people wouldn't understand this, but it was an issue on my wattpad so I thought I'd address the matter early on.) Second, THANK YOU ALL FOR THE REVIEWS! I was ecstatic when I got 11 follows and six reviews in just a single day... I thought it would be forever before someone even found my story! I was so happy that I uploaded chapter two that same day, and now I'm uploading chapter three just one day later. (But please don't expect me to upload this quickly all the time; the only reason I've been able to is because I've already written chapters 1-9 on wattpad so it's easy to copy and paste. I hope to be able to upload one chapter a week, but it all depends on how much schoolwork I have.)**

**And now, without further ado, I present to all you lovely followers CHAPTER THREE:**

**Hazel's POV:**

I'd had one hour to think about what Hecate told us. I still could't believe there was a whole community- no, world- of magical people. As I tested my wand out with with making snacks, Frank sat in the living room, waiting for the others.

_POP_

"Hazel! They're here!" I heard Frank call. I ran into the living room of the safe house Hecate had created for us. Frank was standing there with his mouth slightly open. I gasped.

"Oh my gods, Frank..." It was really disconcerting to see the others at fifteen years old. I mean, I was used to being the youngest- or looking the youngest, and now everyone looked my age. "They'll be waking up soon." I told him after getting over my slight shock. Trunks that were already packed rested a few feet away from the unconscious group, just like they had for Frank and I.

"I know... this is just so _weird_! Especially with Annabeth! She looks like a little kid..." I nodded. Frank and I had, after all, met Annabeth when she was almost eighteen years old. And the others looked unnaturally young, as well. Even Percy and Jason, whom I had known the longest out of the five, looked dramatically different. I was used to and comfortable around Frank, so his transformation hadn't been such a shock. He _had_ been pretty annoyed about his body being restored to its old baby panda- like state, though.

Piper was the first to wake up. "Hey Hazel, Hi Frank." She smiled warmly. "Why are you guys staring at me like that? Oh, wait..." She pulled out a little hand mirror and gasped at her own reflection.

"Is that Katoptris?" I asked, knowing that Hecate had disguised our weapons. Piper nodded absentmindedly, still staring at her image in wonder. Then, the others began to stir. Leo was the next to wake. His subconscious mind probably couldn't handle him staying so still.

"Where did that crazy fog lady go?" he asked, looking miffed. I couldn't help but laugh. Leo looked almost the same, just shorter and looking much less stressed. Yes, I said stressed. The war had taken a terrible toll on all of us, even Leo. Perhaps even _especially _Leo. He had worked tirelessly on managing the Argo II, never complaining and always staying upbeat.

Next came the other two boys.

"Hey, Kelp Head, I'm older than you!" Jason grinned, looking over at Percy and sitting up. Percy rubbed his head in irritation and pushed himself into a sitting position as well.

"No, you're not, Sparky. June comes... uhhhh... wait..."

"_Before_ August?" Annabeth said with a smirk, already completely alert as her eyes flew open. Percy groaned.

"Well, you only _look_ older. My mind's still more mature than yours." he retorted indignantly at Jason.

"Your mind was _never_ more mature!" Annabeth and Jason said at the same time. They high fived and Percy pretended to glare at Annabeth.

"You're supposed to be on MY side, you little traitor!" Annabeth kissed him to shut him up. I found myself smiling. I had really missed these guys. And Percy and Annabeth seemed almost back to normal now. But maybe they were just really good at acting or hiding the pain. The times that the others had Iris(or Fleecey, really)-messaged me and Frank, they had all seemed dead worried about Percy and Annabeth.

"Okay, you guys. Time to get to work. Hecate told me to teach you all how to return to the Mist House. Let's go outside. As long as we stay within the fence, we're shrouded by the Mist and protected."

I spent the next couple of hours teaching everyone to, I guess you could say, teleport back to the Mist House. I remembered when I had to first learn to use the Mist. Of course, I had to learn a lot more, but I knew that any control was very difficult to master. It was all about focusing the mind. Piper got it first, naturally, as Mist-control wasn't all that different from charmspeak, as we found out on the Argo II. Next Annabeth was able to use the Mist, which was expected, her being Athena's most skilled daughter. Frank, who was used to shape-shifting got it next, closely followed by Percy. To everyone's surprise, Leo was able to return to the Mist House before Jason. In fact, it took me an entire extra thirty minutes of coaching before Jason finally was able to use the Mist.

_POP_ We all cheered as an exhausted looking Jason appeared in the living room for the second time. He raised a fist halfheartedly, and Piper gave him a hug with a laugh.

"Never thought the almighty Jason Grace wouldn't be able to focus his mind on a task." Percy teased.

"Awww come on, I bet Annabeth helped you." Jason grumbled, unable to conceal his grin.

"Actually, I achieved supreme mind control when I..." he trailed off, and Annabeth tensed up. The temperature of the room seemed to plummet. We all knew that Percy had been about to say something about Tartarus. Annabeth's breathing grew slightly ore labored, and she shut her eyes, placing one clenched fist against the wall. Percy immediately scooped her up and carried her onto the couch, laying her down gently.

"I'm so sorry, Wise Girl... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything... it just slipped out, I still can't believe I said that..." the rest of us looked at each other worriedly. We were all extremely protective over those two- they had been through so much more than the rest of us. Nico had said that if _he_ had gone through what Percy and Annabeth did while he was in Tartarus, he would've definitely gone insane. And he nearly did go insane from his time down there. But Nico claimed that Percy and Annabeth's experience in Gaea's pit had been a thousand times worse than his. I still remember how Percy and Annabeth had come out, half dead, with Gaea defeated. And somehow they managed to help the rest of us fight off the thousands of mosters left, even then. They never spoke of what happened in Tartarus.

Percy kept whispering soothingly to Annabeth, and soon she was sitting up, apologizing profusely. Percy pressed his lips to hers to silence her.

"EWWWW KEEP IT PG HERE GUYS" Leo shouted, finally breaking the tension. The couple ignored him spectacularly. Piper slapped him in the back of the head, giving him one of her death stares.

"Beauty queen, beauty queen, beauty queen. Tsk tsk tsk. How many times do I have to tell you that you're too pretty... too _delicate_ to pull off a glare?" Leo taunted. I grinned as Piper made an indignant noise and used charmspeak to force Leo to apologize. Those two really were like siblings. And then there were Percy and Annabeth, completely oblivious to the world.

_POP_ Jason, Frank, and I stopped laughing and looked around in alarm. Had someone else arrived? There was a cloud of Mist in the far corner of the living room, and it was slowly clearing...

**Jason's POV:**

When the Mist cleared, we saw... a stack of books? I called Annabeth over.

"Oh, these must be the books Chiron was talking about!" she exclaimed. Sure enough, when all seven of us approached the book stack, I saw a note lying on top:

_Children,  
Please read these books to learn about the wizarding world and prepare for your quest. There are five copies of each book, three in Latin and two in Ancient Greek (I'm assuming Percy and Leo won't read the books) You have one week. On the back of this note there is a list of spells you must all learn. Please master them and get used to your magical abilities by the time the week is over. Someone will come to take you to Mrs. Arabella Figg at that time. Good luck, heroes.  
~Chiron_

Percy chuckled. "Chiron knows me too well. Annabeth, you'll tell me everything, won't you?" Annabeth hesitated.

"I don't know, you need to find out all this information yourself so you'll remember it better." she reprimanded. Percy gave her his signature cute-baby-seal look, doing the whole pleading-with-the-eyes thing. Leo smirked when Annabeth gave in, knowing that meant he wouldn't have to read a word either.

Frank flipped over the note and grumbled, "There are over a hundred spells here..." Leo groaned.

"How about you and Percy practice some of the spells while the rest of us read." Annabeth suggested to Leo. Percy and Leo headed off into the dining room, and Hazel handed out the first book to each of us.

I began to read the book, and was amazed at the astonishingly good writing this daughter of Hecate had. The book was almost like a fiction storybook; it was very interesting.

"AGUAMENTI!" I heard Percy yell from the dining room. Suddenly a jet of clear water shot into the living room. The ribbon of water became a rose, which floated in front of Annabeth. When she touched it, it kept its shape, seemingly solid. Annabeth smiled as Percy walked in.

"I like this spell." he said with a grin.

"Percy, you don't even need it..." Piper said in exasperation.

"INCENDIO!" The fireplace roared to life, and a lick of fire reached out and turned the water into steaming vapor, causing Percy to clutch his chest in mock betrayal.

"Leo! Percy! Work on spells that will actually be useful!" Annabeth scolded. They both grinned and went back into the dining room, leaving the rest of us shaking our heads in exasperation.

One week later, we had all mastered the spells. Annabeth knew the books front to back, having read them all in the time it took the rest of us to read one book- she had read them at least five times each.

"Well, I suppose our 'transportation' is coming today." Piper noted as we sat in the living room, waiting. Not a minute passed after she said that before...

**A/N: Ahaha... a cliffie :) Who or what is taking them to Mrs. Figg? Feel free to make predictions; sometimes they give me ideas. Please please please review, follow and/or favorite, and spread the word! If you like the story so far, of course. Remember, the reviews keep me updating! (I mean, I was so happy about the reviews I saw this morning that I decided to upload this chapter an _entire week_ early!)  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Wow, I really have no life. It's the third day since I uploaded my story and now I'm posting chapter four. Oops. Well, sorry, the chapters will definitely not be coming as quickly after this one... Oh, and sorry the chapters are rather short at the moment.  
**

**Oh, and a HUGE thanks to DreamingFire for being so incredibly supportive. :)**

**Thalia's POV**

I shuddered when the rushing sensation was over. I hated shadow traveling. I glared at Nico for putting me through that ghastly ordeal, stood up taller, and straightened my circlet.

"THALIA! NICO!" Percy called. I grinned as he, Annabeth, and my younger brother Jason rushed over to greet us. Gods, I missed these guys.

"Hey, guys! Just like the good old days, right? I look sixteen, and you guys look fifteen now." I said to Annabeth and Percy with a smile as I tousled Jason's blonde hair. I had accepted Hecate's mission so that I could check on everyone. I could tell just from glancing at them that Percy and Annabeth were still suffering horribly from their journey through Tartarus. Although they looked fine at the moment, I knew both of them well enough to see the pain behind their grins. It physically hurt me to see them like this, especially Annabeth, who I had considered my little sister since the day I met the kid. Right then, Hazel came over.

"Hey, Nico! I've missed you. Hi, Thalia." I could tell that she, Frank, Piper, and Leo were feeling a bit awkward. After all, I had only met them a couple of times, and I guess the whole lieutenant of Artemis thing didn't help much with making them feel comfortable around me. But they came over anyways.

"Hey guys! Nico, what brings you and Jason's extremely hot sister that I'm technically not allowed to date here?" Leo greeted us. I saw Jason roll his eyes as the son of Hephaestus dodged Piper's hand.

"Well, Nico and I both wanted to be a part of this quest and help you guys out, but since I'm Lady Artemis's lieutenant, I can't spend three years on a quest. And apparently there are a lot of ghosts at Hogwarts, so Nico would attract too much unwanted attention." I explained, glancing over at Nico. He had stayed completely silent so far, his expression blank but his eyes as dark and tortured as always. It was easy to forget the kid was only fourteen years old.

"That's great! So you guys will be popping in to help every once in a while?" Frank asked with a smile.

"Yup! Sadly we'll be shadow traveling. I hate shadow travel." I glared pointedly at Nico, who didn't react. For some reason, though, his pale visage had been slightly tinged with pink ever since Percy greeted us.

"Yeah, I'll be shadow traveling you guys to Arabella Figg. We should leave in about ten minutes, so go pack up and stuff." Nico finally spoke up. Everyone nodded and rushed off to get ready.

Ten minutes later, we met in the living room again.

"Okay everyone, hold on tight to me, or hold onto someone that's holding onto me." Nico instructed. I groaned and took a deep breath in preparation for the worst transportation method ever known to the gods. Excluding those horrible ski lifts that hung about a million feet in the air... "Everyone ready?" We all murmured assent. Then, without further warning, Nico willed the shadows of the house to rush toward us, and we were swallowed up by darkness.

**Frank's POV**

The shadow traveling finally ended. I felt like I was gonna throw up. The only reassurance I had was that I wasn't the only one. In fact, only Hazel and Nico looked unfazed.

"Where are we?" I asked, glancing around at our unfamiliar surroundings.

"Magnolia Crescent, Little Whinging. In England." Nico replied tersely.

"We have to go soon, apparently, because Nico doesn't want to meet Mrs. Figg." Thalia told us with an eyeroll. Right on cue, a batty old woman came into view and started running (she sure was fast for a... senior citizen) towards us.

"That's her. We have to go." Nico said urgently. Thalia barely had time to moan before Nico grabbed her arm and they disappeared into the shadows. The woman came up to us, panting.

"Oh, thank goodness you children are here. I'm going to _kill_ that Mundungus Fletcher! He knows perfectly well that I'm a Squib, and I need to get you seven to your portkey! Oh _Merlin_, it's going to leave in less than thirty minutes; _what_ am I going to do? And I just saw Harry going towards Wisteria Walk with his cousin and I just _know_ something's going to go wrong, I can feel it!" She spoke very quickly as she reached us, wringing her hands. It took me a while to recall what a _Squib_ and _portkey_ were."I'm Mrs. Figg, if you didn't know- I'm going to be taking you all to your portkey, but we have to _hurry_! There's very little time and we need to check on Harry first; oh I hope Dumbledore _murders_ Mundungus Fletcher when he finds out!" We stood there staring at her, bewildered and silenced by her insistent personality.

"Well don't just _stand_ there! Come on, quickly! We have to make sure Harry's alright! You _do_ know who Harry Potter is, right?" the old lady shrieked. I nodded numbly, still sort of taken aback by this peculiar woman. With that, she went running as fast as she could towards a dark alley, and we had no choice but to follow her. I had to suppress the urge to bring my bow and arrow out (they had been magically shrunken and were in my fireproof pouch along with my piece of firewood) as we sprinted after the strange lady.

**Harry's POV**

"Don't you _dare_- you don't understand-" I had my cousin pinned up against a wall of the alley shortcut, my want pressed up against his throat. I had snapped when he had mentioned... _Cedric_. After several long seconds of the pig spewing curses in my furious face, Dudley began to whimper. This was so unexpected that my anger drained away instantly. "Dudley?"

"Make it stop, make it stop! I'll tell dad that you're doing m-m-m-magic!" he cried. My heart sank when I realized what happened. Dementors.

"Dudley, stay where you are!" I was wild with panic. How could there be dementors in Little Whinging?

"Make it stop or I'll h-hit you!" Dudley's meaty hand collided with the side of my head, knocking my glasses off and my wand out of my hand.

"Damn it, Dudley!" I found my glasses and jammed them on.

"NO! DUDLEY! STOP! YOU'RE RUNNING STRAIGHT AT IT!" I fumbled for my wand, but I couldn't find it in the complete darkness. "_Lumos_!" I muttered desperately. To my relief, my wand lit up, inches from my right hand. I looked up in horror to see the dementor gliding up to Dudley. "DUDLEY! DON'T OPEN YOUR MOUTH! DO NOT OPEN YOUR MOUTH NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO!"

I felt a cold presence behind me and whirled around in panic- there was another one behind me. Then, I heard the thundering of feet. Six or seven teenagers who looked about my age ran up to the second dementor. I felt a vague exasperation through my bewilderment and fear. Now I would have to protect these muggles too! One grabbed- a sword? Certain my eyes were playing tricks on me, I forced myself to focus and raised my wand. I had no choice but to use magic now.

"_EXPECTO PATRONUM_!" I yelled desperately with all my might, thinking of Ron and Hermione. A stag burst forth from my wand and went after the dementor that had been tilting back Dudley's head. I turned around, ready to direct my patronus towards the second dementor, when I realized it was already gone.

"What- how- sword-" I stammered. I couldn't help feeling a little self-conscious. The seven teenagers all looked very fit and muscular and... American? I was shocked into silence as the adrenaline from fighting the dementors slowly wore off. They must have been witches and wizards, because I knew muggles couldn't see dementors, but why would they be in Little Whinging? A girl stepped forward quickly.

"I'm so sorry for the confusion." She said, smiling charmingly at me. I couldn't help noticing how pretty she was and blushed a little, to my horror. "That wasn't a sword you saw, that was a branch. Your eyes must have been playing tricks on you in the dim light. And the other- uh- dementor, it's gone because your... patronus chased it away first. You must not have noticed it." she said sweetly in an American accent. When I thought about it, I realized she was right. Of course my eyes had been deceiving me; I was stupid to think that black-haired kid was holding a sword. Still, the whole situation was bizarre.

**A/N: Please review if you want me to update! What did you like? Dislike? What are you looking forward to? Did I portray the characters adequately? Any suggestions? Oh, and I completely rewrote Chapter One (Like I said, too much time on my hands) so please read that and maybe review? :)  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Special thanks to DreamingFire for being so extraordinarily supportive and inspirational, and to r7e7d7 for giving me really specific constructive criticism that has been the most helpful I've ever gotten. Sorry this chapter is still short! I'm really trying to write longer chapters, but school has been hindering my availability and free time. -.-  
**

**Jason's POV:**

I was relieved that Piper's charmspeak had worked on Harry. Annabeth had been unsure if the Mist and charmspeak would work as well on witches and wizards, since they had been blessed by Hecate and were not normal mortals. But sure enough, Harry was looking thoroughly convinced now. After all, Piper _had_ delayed _Gaea_ with her charmpeak once. I couldn't resist throwing her a proud look, which she returned with an eyeroll but a smile all the same as I pulled her back to my side.

"Who are you people?" Harry finally asked when the initial shock wore off a bit. I had been surprised at how _scrawny_ the wizard hero was- even scrawnier than Leo. I guess that was because I spent all my time around trained demigods. Waving a stick around was probably not the best physical training or workout a guy can get.

"I'm the super-sized Mcschizzle, bad boy supreme, also known as lowly mechanic repair boy, Leo. Oh, and did I mention I'm the son of a god?" Leo muttered drily under his breath. Piper slapped his arm as Annabeth stepped forward. I looked at her and Percy, concerned that they would have some sort of flashback after Percy killed that dementor, but they looked fine. They were both so strong. Thalia had told me that Artemis said most _gods_ would have gone insane if they went through what those two went through. And I wished I could help them, but at the same time I didn't want to know what the two most experienced members of our team had gone through.

"I'm Annabeth. This is Percy, my boyfriend. That was Piper who just spoke to you, and the others are Jason, Leo, Hazel, and Frank. We're American exchange students. Our headmaster, Mr. Brunner, wanted to send us to Hogwarts because we were ahead of the students our age at our magic school in New York, and Hogwarts is rumored to be the best school in the world." she explained, using the story we had rehearsed. Harry just kept staring, his mouth slightly open. Just then, Mrs. Figg came up. I had almost forgotten about that old lady. Harry hastily tried to stow his wand away.

"_Don't_ put it away, idiot boy!" she shrieked. "What if there are more of them around? Oh, I'm going to _kill_ Mundungus Fletcher! And you seven! Why don't you have your wands out?" she turned on us. We scrambled to take them out. I'm pretty sure all of us had forgotten that we had them.

"You-you're a witch?" Harry looked baffled.

"I'm a Squib, as Mundungus well knows, and he still left! Oh, I just knew something like this was going to happen!" she said, wringing her hands. The seven of us, plus Harry, stared at her blankly. "Well, hurry up, Harry, we need to get you home! And I have to get these American barbarians to their portkey and there's not enough time- we need to leave NOW!"

"American barbarians?" Leo muttered indignantly. We followed the old lady to Mrs, Figg's house, with me and Percy carrying that elephant of a boy, Dudley.

**Leo's POV:**

Jason and Percy dumped Dudley unceremoniously onto the WELCOME mat in front of Mrs. Figg's door, panting.

"Hurry, hurry! Your portkey is leaving in-" Mrs. Figg checked her watch and shrieked, "-FOUR MINUTES! Come with me, quickly! You! Bring the fat one inside and close the door!" she pointed to me. Of course. Make the hot one do all the work. I did as the old batty crab asked reluctantly, and followed her and the others into her kitchen that reeked of the smell of cats. Annabeth whispered to me that the cats were actually kneazles, and some were half kneazle, which is some type of ugly wizarding cat. Like I cared. A cat is a cat, and an old cat lady is an old cat lady no matter what type of cats she has. **(A/N: fun fact that I was unaware of prior to writing this fanfic- Crookshanks is half kneazle)**

"You know how a portkey works, right?" the old bat demanded. We nodded. At least, I thought I did. Annabeth had explained it to me, but I think I was building a chicken nugget maker that day... it ended up not working, in case you were wondering. The others crowded around a moldy apple. I grimaced and put a finger on it in disgust, resisting the urge to send it up in smoke.

"Quickly, read this and _memorize it immediately_, then destroy it as soon as you finish!" Mrs. Figg shrieked as she handed Frank a slip of paper. He read it, then passed it on to each of us. When I saw it, it said in loopy, almost girly handwriting:

_The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London._

I memorized it, even though it made no sense. Then, without thinking, I set it on fire.

"_Leo!_ You blew our cover already!" Hazel hissed in alarm. Harry and Mrs. Fig were staring at my hand, which was still on fire from burning the paper. Oops. I hastily extinguished it and threw the ashes in the trash can.

"I thought she meant that _we_ were supposed to destroy it!" I whispered back frantically.

"That never happened. You will forget that Leo destroyed the paper. Mrs. Figg threw it away." Piper said forcefully in charmspeak. Her words were so powerful that I almost forgot, too. Mrs. Figg and Harry shook their heads, as if to clear them.

Suddenly, I felt a violent jerk behind my belly button. I yelped in surprise. Nothing Annabeth told me could have prepared me for the feeling. The last thing I saw was that crazy old lady telling us something, but I couldn't hear her. One of the girls, I think Hazel, screamed. We were spinning through the air at a dizzying speed (it was awesome), when finally it all stopped. I heard a gasp.

"Oh, thank GOODNESS you're here!" I relieved woman's voice reached us through the haze.

**Ron's POV:**

"Oh, thank GOODNESS you're here!" Mum exclaimed. Hermione and me looked up immediately, hoping that somehow the plans had been changed and Harry had arrived earlier by portkey. (My fingers still hurt from when Hedwig nearly pecked me to death before we were able to convince her we were getting Harry out.) But when we looked up, we got an even bigger surprise.

"_Bloody hell!_" I muttered. There were seven kids that looked to be about my age... but then again, older, if that made any sense. Hermione probably knew a word for it. My siblings were staring too. The newcomers introduced themselves.

Leo was a kinda scrawny looking kid compared to the others, but he still looked way more athletic than me. He seemed to have a lot of energy, and kept playing with this wire he took out from... his belt? No, it must have been his pocket.

The next bloke's name was Frank. He was a really buff Asian kid with an innocent face, which was a strange combination.

The girl standing next to him was named Hazel. She looked like she'd been training all her life as well.

The next girl, Piper, was drop-dead gorgeous, even without makeup. Here eyes seemed to change color and her hair was perfectly natural and beautiful. Her body was a perfect form, and she looked casual but glamorous at the same time. Hermione had to tell me to close my mouth, much to my embarrassment.

I was instantly jealous of the bloke who had his arm around her, a guy names Jason. He was extremely muscular- all these guys were making me feel like a wimp- and he really didn't look fifteen, although he claimed to be.

The last two, Percy and Annabeth, were obviously together. They looked like they were about to start snogging at any second. They both had this weird sort of deadly powerful aura about them. Annabeth had, strangely, stormy gray eyes, and she looked as though she were calculating my every move and boring into my mind. It was sorta creepy. To be honest, I thought she might even be smarter than Hermione, although I would never say it to either of them. Percy had messy black hair and green eyes like Harry, but that's where the similarities ended. He definitely worked out, and didn't look like he spent all his time waving a wand around at all. After they said their names, Fred, George, me, Hermione, and Ginny introduced ourselves self consciously.

**Hermione's POV:**

I watched the newcomers closely while they introduced themselves. They seemed... different for some reason- and I didn't just mean their accents. As a naturally suspicious person, I just had to figure out why.

Mrs. Weasley smiled. "These are American exchange students that will be going to Hogwarts. They'll be staying with us until term starts. The girls will be staying with Hermione and Ginny, while you four boys will get your own room. You headmaster Mr. Brunner has already sent your things." she told them in a welcoming tone. The unusually passionate couple exchanged a look.

"Mrs. Weasley? Percy and I have to sleep together..." Annabeth trailed off awkwardly. I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. Had they no dignity, even for Americans? They were fifteen, not married! To my surprise, Mrs. Weasley didn't look scandalized, or even startled.

"Oh, of course, I forgot. Dumbledore did mention... yes, I'll go set up a room for you two right away." she said kindly to Percy and Annabeth. They murmured their thanks. "Now, why don't you kids have dinner, then go upstairs for the Order meeting." Mrs. Weasley suggested. She left, and we regarded each other for a couple of minutes. Then, almost in unison, the Americans approached out table and sat down. That girl Piper smiled charmingly.

"So, I heard you two were planing on starting a joke shop?" she asked the twins a little too sweetly in her twangy accent. Well, she certainly knew how to end an awkward silence, as the twins launched into a lengthy and detailed explanation of their plans. But how had Piper known about Fred and George? I was really starting to think something was off with these 'American exchange students'...

Soon after we all finished eating- I thought Percy would never stop, and Leo kept asking for chicken nuggets- Mrs. Weasley sent us upstairs so that the Order meeting could start. Ginny chatted with Hazel and Piper in our room, but I read a book, feeling too suspicious to talk to the Americans yet.

Just then, the door opened with a bang. I leapt up in excitement. "_HARRY!_" I tackled him in a hug, and Ron came over, grinning. We talked for a bit, and even though Harry was rightfully furious at Ron and I, I was relieved to see him.

The Americans' lack of reaction to meeting the famous Harry Potter was surprising. It turned out they had already met, at the dementor attack. Piper even demanded to be Harry's witness at his hearing. I narrowed my eyes at her. Why was she convinced she could clear Harry? But I was unable to question her, because it was obvious Harry did not want to discuss the matter.

"The meeting's over, come on down, Harry! Everyone's anxious to see you." Mrs. Weasley called up shortly after the twins showed Harry their Extendable Ears. We all headed downstairs.

**A/N: *sighs contentedly* I love writing Leo's POV... Please review! I love specific feedback. :) Also, I've rewritten Chapter One for any of my earliest readers who want to check that out.**


	6. Chapter 6

******To Guest467: Thank you so much for the (extremely) specific review! You're the one who convinced me to stop being lazy and upload another chapter. :) I will definitely be taking your advice on everything you've made a point of. I know you don't want Percy and Annabeth to be overly affected by their experience in Tartarus, and trust me, they will be recovering, but I'm afraid this chapter accentuates the emotional trauma inflicted on them from their time there. Hopefully it doesn't drive you away!**

**A/N: FINALLY I am updating again. I hate the end of the school year. So many projects and finals... Dx Quick warning: this chapter contains the slightest bit of violence and gore but if you've read Rick Riordan's books and loved them you should be fine :) **

**Oh, and also, sorry about how short the chapter is. Like I said, projects and finals. :( And this chapter greatly deviates from canon, because I made up a detailed account of my version of what happened in Tartarus (that will be revealed gradually). Okay, here we go... enjoy! **

-(several hours later)-

**Percy's POV**

I stared out the window of the room Annabeth and I were in, gazing out at the serene and undisturbed old fashioned neighborhood of Grimmauld Place. It was the complete opposite of the emotions swirling through my mind. I was terrified of sleep, and the horrible nightmares it would bring. Annabeth had just fallen asleep and my muscles were tensed up, waiting for her torment to begin. Sure enough, the one person I cared about most in the world began thrashing around 3am.

"No! No, no NOOO! PLEASE! PERCY! HELPPPP! MOM, CHIRON, ANYBODY! PLEASE STOP!" she cried out in anguish, sobs wracking her broken body. My eyes filled with tears as I tried to wake her from the flashback she was in.

"Annabeth, wake up!" I urged frantically. It broke my heart to see her like this.

"PLEASE! Stop... Hurt me instead..." I finally shook her awake and she lay there, crying and whimpering into my chest, shaking like a leaf.

"It's not real, Annabeth... only a dream... it's okay, I'm here. I'm here. We're together, we're safe, and that's all that matters." I whispered, stroking her hair gently while hiding tears of my own. Annabeth was unable to cease the tears flowing freely down her face, and all I could do was hug her closer and keep murmuring a steady stream of soothing words into her ear. By the way she was touching my right hand, I suspected what nightmare, or flashback, really, that she had been having. "Was it the M-Minotaur?" I asked softly. She nodded, a choked sob torn from her throat as I held her. I could feel myself trembling too, as I thought back to what had happened.

Gaea had wanted to... sacrifice us at a certain time, at a time that was most magical to ensure her rise... with our blood. But at the time Annabeth and I had been captured, it was about an hour, or a day early. Time is hard to tell in hell. So Gaea had let the monsters... torture us, as long as they didn't kill us or make us go unconscious. They tormented us for what seemed like an eternity, each monster exacting revenge through excruciating pain and despair. But the worst part was hearing each other scream, watching each other be degraded and wounded.

The one part Annabeth had just been forced to relive was when it was the Minotaur's turn. He had a special hatred towards me, after I had defeated him twice. He... he had broken every finger in my sword hand. I still remember the desperation of Annabeth's screams as I gritted my teeth and choked on my own cries for her sake... And she was sobbing and yet still somehow managing to call out to me, urging me to be strong, saying that she loved me. My strong, beautiful Annabeth. And I feared she may have been broken during our time down there in the pits of Tartarus. We both were.

**Annabeth's POV:**

I buried my head in Percy's shirt to conceal the helplessness that consumed my soul. I couldn't stop thinking about his bruised and cut countenance twisted in agony as he struggled not to cry out. The worst was his look of utter despair as it happened; we both knew he couldn't fight nearly as well with just his left hand.

Right now, I could feel him quivering slightly, drowning in memories like I was. Before Tartarus, I had never seen Percy cry before. Ever. Through everything that had happened to him. It made him seem so much more vulnerable. Something had broken inside of him when they were torturing me. Then his mother had been murdered, and that had broken him yet again.

"Percy... is your h-hand alright?" I stuttered and struggled to form the words, still shaking violently with tears wetting my lashes.

"Apollo fixed it, remember? Shhhh... I love you, Annabeth. It's okay. It's okay." Percy whispered. Slowly my eyes began to dry. I trembled with the weight of my memories that threatened to crush me. Percy kept whispering comforting words into my ear. He held onto me, stroking my hair.

Suddenly there was a soft knock on the door, making both Percy and I flinch horribly.

"Guys? Are you okay?" It was Frank. I should have known. The other boys' room was right next to ours, and Frank was known to be a light sleeper. Honestly, we were all light sleepers after... everything. And Frank hadn't been at Camp Half-Blood, where everyone knew about our nightmares, because the first night I had screamed for Percy and woken everyone in the entire camp up. I hadn't calmed down until Percy was there and Piper was forced to use charmspeak. But Hazel and Frank had been at Camp Jupiter, so they had no idea how bad things were for me and my Seaweed Brain.

"Come in." Percy said hoarsely. Frank turned the doorknob and opened the door, blushing when he saw Percy holding onto me with tear tracks clearly on my face. Poor, sweet Frank. It was nice to see traces of the awkward boy who had come to me for help with Chinese handcuffs through the warrior the Second Giant War had forced him to become.

"I heard Annabeth screaming..." his face had concern written all over it. I felt Percy take a deep breath as he held onto me tightly.

"Frank... we have nightmares after... after what happened. We have to go through this pretty much every night, and... please don't worry about us. We'll be okay." Percy said in that soft voice bereft of all sarcasm that he only ever used when he was most vulnerable. Frank looked like he wanted to say more, but only nodded and bid us goodnight before shutting the door quietly. I turned my face towards Percy's and we exchanged a look. The both of us had only told the others that both of us had almost died as... sacrifices... to wake... Her. And that Percy had nearly... destroyed himself to free us, and that he and I had prevented... Her... for another couple thousand years. But that was all they, and even Chiron, knew. It was just too painful to relive those memories with anyone other than Percy. We were kids playing soldiers for far too long.

Percy held me close once more, and pressed his warm, soft lips to mine gently. One of my hands slipped to the edge of his shirt and up his back, feeling his whip scars with a feather-light touch. We both had them. It was the manticore who did it, holding the whip in his tail while he grazed our bodies with his spikes. Tears began leaking from the corners of my eyes again. At least I hadn't dreamed about... no, I couldn't think about that, or I would never stop crying. Percy. Without him I had nothing. My heart fluttered, even now. Then he held me as we watched the sun rise, trying to let go of the images swirling through our tortured minds.

**A/N: Well, I hope I destroyed some feels today! Please review (specifically!) for more- you guys keep me writing! **


	7. Chapter 7

**This chapter is dedicated to DreamingFire. Happy thirteenth birthday, Piper! (Yes, her name is actually Piper. XD)  
**

**Harry's POV:**

Ron and I walked downstairs and into the dining room, where Jason, Piper, Hermione, Sirius and the twins were already devouring the delicious breakfast that Mrs. Weasley had prepared. Hermione was purposefully refusing to look at Piper and Jason, who were talking in low voices to each other. I could she didn't trust the Americans and especially disliked Piper- although I suspected that had something to do with jealousy, not that I would ever dare to say it out loud. Personally, I thought the Americans were alright.

"Morning, boys. I'm going to need your help in the drawing room today. Jason already volunteered." Mrs. Weasley said with a fond smile at the blonde-haired boy. "You could take a leaf out of his book." she chided at us. Jason didn't say a word but offered us a quick smile before turning back to Piper and conversing with her quietly.

"Sounds like Perce." **(A/N: Percy Weasley)** Ron whispered to me with a snicker so that his mum wouldn't hear.

"I heard that." Jason muttered when we sat down, but he sounded more amused than angry. Ron jumped, looking guilty as we sat down. I picked at my food, thinking about what I had learned yesterday about the Order and Voldemort's plans, and wondering if Piper could really clear my name at the hearing. I had already asked Sirius about having her as my witness, and he had promised to inform Dumbledore. With a concerned frown, I noticed that he and Mrs. Weasley were determinedly being uncharacteristically polite to each other after yesterday's fight.

Gradually the others came down, and I found myself observing the Americans along with Hermione who was watching with a hawk's eye. Leo whispered something about British food, earning him a slap from Piper. He then muttered something else, but all I caught was the word "camp". I had no idea what that meant and for some reason, it made me uneasy. When Mr. Weasley came down, he sat next to the Americans and demanded to know all about the muggle gadgets in 'the new world'. Ron, Fred, and George were staring openly at Piper. I couldn't blame them. She was really pretty, but still, they were looking like idiots. Ginny caught my eye and rolled her eyes at her brothers. I hid a smile.

Then, Percy and Annabeth came down, hand in hand. My eyes widened, and I heard Hermione gasp. Everyone, minus the Americans, stopped talking and stared. You could hear a pin drop as the two of them sat down.

Ron swallowed the food in his bulging cheeks, his eyes wide. "Bloody hell..." he choked out, nearly spluttering at the sight of them.

**Hermione's POV:**

The horrible silence was nearly tangible, the tension from the Americans almost hostile, and definitely wary. Eventually, Percy met our eyes.

"What?" He asked wearily.

"Are you alright, dears?" Mrs. Weasley asked tentatively. I doubted it. They looked tired- no, beyond tired. They looked exhausted in a way that made it seem like they had seen the end of the world. They looked weary and fatigued to the point of collapse. I was horribly shocked to see Percy and Annabeth, who had seemed so powerful just last night, look so dreadfully defeated now. It was really disconcerting to see them looking so vulnerable now... I couldn't speak. This erased all my doubts that they had done anything... improper last night. I still didn't trust them, but maybe they really did need each other.

"Percy and Annabeth don't sleep well, Mrs. Weasley." Piper rushed to explain, a very forced but somehow still sweet smile on her seemingly innocent countenance.

"Blimey, that's an understatement. You two look like you've just been to hell and back." Ron blurted incredulously. The effect of his harmless words was instantaneous.

Percy flinched, and Annabeth recoiled as though she had been slapped. Percy pulled her into his arms as the other five Americans turned in unison and glared at Ron. Ron looked petrified, and I didn't blame him. Those Americans looked murderous, and seemed perfectly capable of it, too.

"God, I'm sorry." Ron said nervously. They didn't answer. Frank helped Percy and Annabeth up, and I saw that Annabeth was- trembling? I wasn't sure. It didn't seem possible that these two broken teenagers were the same warrior-like foreigners from the night before. Leo and Hazel quickly got up along with Frank and surged forward to support Percy and Annabeth. Piper threw one last contemptuous look at Ron, and then turned her gaze on Mrs. Weasley, her expression visibly softening with effort.

"Thank you for the breakfast, Mrs. Weasley. We'll join you in the drawing room in a bit to help." Piper said sweetly. Then she went over to the others, and I saw her whispering insistently to Percy and Annabeth as though she were giving them orders. Jason cleaned up after all of them, and followed. They left us in stunned silence.

"Close your mouth, Ronald." I finally said shakily to break the awful silence.

"Scared of a girl, Ronniekinns?" Fred teased. Ron still looked terrified and didn't even have a scathing retort for his older brother. And really, I was bewildered as well. Why had they reacted so badly to a simple saying? I would definitely need to watch these peculiar Americans. They seemed completely out of place and I was almost certain they were hiding something- and I didn't just mean the fact that they were from across the Atlantic.

**Hazel's POV:**

I simply could not fathom the tactlessness of that kid Ron. He had chosen the absolute worst words possible; the truth of them had put extra sting behind the comment. Frank had told me, in that endearingly flustered way of his, about what he had walked in on the other night. He confessed that Percy had his shirt off, and there were horrible marks all over his body, scars everywhere, that made it seem like he had been tortured. None of us knew for sure what had happened in Tartarus. We knew that Percy and Annabeth were intended to be the sacrifices to awaken Gaea, but we didn't understand how they had escaped, or how they had ultimately defeated the earth goddess. There were rumors that Percy controlled the rivers of the underworld and Tartarus out of desperation, but as a daughter of Pluto, I knew that was impossible for anyone, save my father, to do without being killed or injured beyond rescue. Even other gods would have a difficult time accomplishing that feat without becoming incapacitated for eons. One thing was for sure, though. What they had gone through was worse than anyone else had experienced in recorded history- not even Hercules had gone into Tartarus, and Nico hadn't escaped, he'd been brought out as bait. Thinking about Nico made my stomach twist in worry, but I couldn't dwell on him now. Demigods had to learn to move on, or at least move constantly to keep the pain at bay.

After Piper helped Percy recover using charmspeak, the two of them had helped Annabeth calm down. They were so strong. I know anyone else would have been driven insane by now, and Ron's comment had been delivered right as they were emotionally damaged after the nightmare. But they somehow got up again, and we headed down to the drawing room. Percy looked furious at himself, and Annabeth's eyes were particularly stormy. I knew the two of them hated appearing weak, just like Nico, and I wish I could let them know that they were anything but weak. But nothing we said could alter their opinions. The Weasleys', Hermione, Harry, and Sirius were already in the drawing room as we arrived. Piper glared furiously at Ron, who made a little noise in the back of his throat and nearly scrambled to Harry Potter and Hermione Granger's side.

"Hey, Pipes, tone down the death stare a bit. You're scaring the redhead." Jason said gently, placing a conciliating hand on his girlfriend's arm.

"Nobody messes with my OTP. Nobody." She replied fiercely, but her face relaxed and she turned from Ron, who breathed a sigh of relief.

"Looks like someone's inner Aphrodite is showing through." Leo smirked, dodging Piper's hand as she gave him an annoyed glare. I smiled at their sibling-like behavior and turned to Frank.

"What's an OTP? I asked him. It was difficult being dead for half a century.

"One True Pairing." He said simply, which made no sense. I didn't question him further, though. I knew his thoughts were on Percy. After going through so much with him, I was too. He and Annabeth were talking quietly in the corner.

Soon we learned how to dedoxyfy the curtains and set off to work. I was glad they didn't trigger any flashback from Percy and Annabeth. Ron kept glancing at Piper nervously, but it was clear her anger had ebbed away. She was fiercely protective of all of us, but didn't usually hold a grudge for long. That was a fatal flaw of children of Hades like myself.

**Frank's POV:**

Surprisingly, spraying the doxies felt really satisfying. It served as a great distraction of my worry over Percy and Annabeth's condition. Well, not really. I hadn't seen Percy with his shirt off since Tartarus, even in water, so I had never seen all his scars- and it had shaken me up more than I'd like to admit. The question of the events in Tartarus ate away at me and I desperately wanted to know what had happened so I could help. I could tell the others were worried about those two as well; everyone kept looking over at them in concern.

But apparently they were fine- or at least they were well enough to hide their true emotions. I grinned when I saw Percy controlling the spray, which must have held water. He would spray haphazardly and aim the vapor in the faces of twenty doxies at once. He had a small mischievous smile on his face as he hit others' doxies from across the room, leaving some witches and wizards very bewildered. Glancing around me, I saw Leo speaking in a low tone with Harry and the two redhead twins that I couldn't tell apart. All four of them had somewhat devious grins and Leo's hair was almost visibly smoking in excitement. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion but knew there was nothing I could do about whatever prank they were probably planning. It was evident that Leo had found a kindred spirit in the Weasley twins.

After lunch **(A/N: Harry meets Kreacher at this point, but this is in Frank's POV and he's downstairs eating lunch)** , we tackled the dusty old glass cabinet in the corner. There were all sorts of strange objects in there, including a biting box with some weird powder inside, which one of the twins promptly slipped into his pocket, and one of those old music box things that made us all sleepy until Ginny slammed the lid shut.

There was also an old locket that nobody could open. We all tried, and when it got to Hazel, she shrieked and dropped it.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT THING!" She cried, her eyes wide with horror. We all stared. After all, Hazel was the most quiet out of all of us and rarely yelled or screamed. "There's something evil inside!" She gasped. Hermione was looking at her suspiciously. We got rid of it, and Hazel relaxed. I gave her a questioning look and she pulled me aside. "There was a piece of someone's soul inside." She whispered to me, shuddering. Being a daughter of Hades, it made sense that she could feel something like that and I trusted her instincts.

At dinner, Mrs. Weasley ordered Harry and Piper to make themselves presentable for the hearing. Poor Harry looked sick. But I knew his name would be cleared if Piper was his witness. In fact, I saw Piper smirking a bit to herself as we went upstairs...

**A/N: Oooh... you guys have no idea how excited I am to post the next chapter *smiles mischievously* I've already drafted it and I swear I was grinning the entire time while I was writing it. In my opinion, Piper is seriously underrepresented by the fandom and I can't wait to demonstrate some of her power. :D Please review if you want me to write more! And I uploaded this really quickly so please tell me if you see any mistakes/typos.  
**

**Okay, I've recently started writing this original book of my own, which can be found on wattpad. (fanfic won't let me post a link so just search "tobiastris_foursix") I would love it if you guys were to read it! Here's the summary and beginning of the prologue if you're interested. If not, sorry for wasting your time and feel free to stop reading. :)  
**

Summary: Katrina Nelson is pretty much like any other fifteen year old, a stereotypical white girl. She's bitter about having to move across the country and anxious about starting at a new school. But other than that, she has a decently average life and lifestyle, perhaps a little more privileged than most. And she's determined to start off right at her new school, possibly climbing the social ladder and gaining the favor of the teachers. But her entire perspective changes when she meets her lab partner- a guy named Daniel who is so guarded he won't even disclose his last name. Katrina's new goal, spurred on by her naturally invasive personality, is to unlock the secrets of Daniel's dark past, and the secrets of his mysterious behavior- but will the devastating knowledge that awaits her benefit or harm the boy who seems to be invisible? And why is it that whenever she's around this dark teen, strange things seem to happen?

First Paragraph: The dark haired teen exited the weathered building that was Cedar Oak High. His eyes were downcast and his shoulders held inexplicable tension as they always did, as if he were expecting an attack at any second- either from the outside or from within himself. He was mostly ignored as he walked, with the exception of a few jeers from his crueler classmates. They received no acknowledgement from the sophomore as he wearily continued the daily trek to the local library, his old black backpack holding nearly all his belongings. Nobody really knew or cared about who he was. Those that were curious enough to ask quickly lost interest as the boy deflected them with guarded answers that didn't give any information. So nobody noticed that the air around him shimmered slightly as he walked, almost crackling with electricity, the ground beneath his feet darkening with shadows wherever a step met the uneven pavement.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I didn't really edit this chapter that much so I apologize in advance for any horrible mistakes... Thank you all so much for the support you've given me! I swear I have the best readers ever.**

**Piper's POV:**

The alarm I had set on my phone the night before woke me up at exactly 5:30 am. Even though the hearing was to start at 9, I had a lot of preparing to do. And yes, I know demigods aren't supposed to have phones, but, like Annabeth, I snuck one so that I could reach my dad easily. So far it hasn't led to too many nearly fatal encounters with monsters.

"_Why_ are you up so early?" Hazel grumbled sleepily from her bed. "Whatever happened to beauty sleep, Aphrodite spawn?" she mumbled with a half-hearted smile. I sighed. It would be 10:30 at night in New York... jetlag is a bitch.

"Go back to sleep. I'm just getting ready for Harry's disciplinary hearing. Time to crank up that Aphrodite charm." I replied with a smirk. Hazel nodded, disinterested, then buried her face in her pillow. Going over to my suitcase, I quickly picked out an outfit that would... enhance my charmspeak. Annabeth had done a considerable amount of research and had warned me that witches and wizards, who had been blessed by a goddess, wouldn't be as susceptible to charmspeak as regular mortals.

I had packed most of my clothes from when I was fifteen, and I found the outfit my mom had gotten me that fateful day when Jason, Leo, Coach Hedge, and I set off to save my father- not to mention civilization as we know it. I decided to dress in that exact outfit. After all, my mother _is_ the goddess of beauty. It was probably wise to trust her choices when it came to fashion.

After that, I only had to perform the arduous task of fixing my hair to perfection and applying minimal makeup, which I loathed. But it was necessary to achieve maximum charmspeak power. With a shudder at my reflection, I packed some normal clothing into a charmed beaded handbag that Hermione had- very reluctantly- lent me, and headed downstairs.

The reaction that greeted me was unpleasantly expected. Everyone present was rendered speechless as I made my way uncomfortably to the table and sat down. Sure, my confidence had grown tremendously since my first quest, but I still didn't enjoy being gawked at like so many of my siblings. Mrs. Weasley was the first to react.

"You look lovely today, Piper." she said kindly, but I could sense her discomfort at seeing my appearance change so dramatically.

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley." I offered a sweet smile, hoping to put everyone at ease. Eventually they all relaxed, but I could still feel awed glances- especially from a certain Sirius Black- being thrown my way.

**Harry's POV:**

I woke up the next morning abruptly. The hearing! Stomach fluttering, I threw on my clothes without bothering to check what I was wearing and went downstairs quietly, expecting nobody to be there. To my surprise, Piper, Tonks, Lupin, Sirius and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were all sitting in the kitchen waiting for me. My jaw dropped when I saw Piper. Suddenly I wished I had paid more attention to my outfit.

She was wearing a gorgeous turquoise dress that brought out the changing colors in her eyes, and was wearing makeup for the first time since I met her. She looked so _beautiful_ that I almost forgot about the hearing. When she winked at me, I almost fainted dead away. Her hair was in a perfect braid down the side and was tied with an elegant golden hair ribbon. I had no idea how I had missed her beauty and I now understood why Ron and his brothers had been staring at her so shamelessly the first day. I heard Lupin chuckle, and my face heated up.

"We told her that she couldn't charm the judge into your favor." Lupin said with a knowing smile. "Don't worry, Sirius was staring too."

I could feel that I was blushing furiously as I sat down next to Piper, who had somehow transformed into some sort of goddess overnight.

"How are you feeling?" Mr. Weasley asked in a serious tone. I shrugged, but I was brought sharply back to reality. Everyone kept giving me advice, but I barely heard them over my own anxiety. I couldn't see for the life of me how Piper was being so calm and confident.

Finally it was time to leave. I smiled weakly as Piper thanked everyone for me, and she and Mr. Weasley led me to the Ministry.

**Piper's POV:**

After a while, I decided to let go of my discomfort and have a little fun, to take advantage of my mother's blessing. It certainly seemed to unnerve Harry as we set off towards the Ministry of Magic. To my surprise, Mr. Weasley led us to an innocent looking, old fashioned red telephone box. Well, maybe it wasn't old fashioned in England. It looked kind of like that TARDIS thing from that show that Annabeth and Jason liked to watch. But it soon became clear that this was no ordinary telephone booth. It was the entrance to the Ministry.

"Don't be nervous, Harry." I said cheerfully, charmspeak setting my tone. Immediately Harry seemed to relax, and I nodded in satisfaction. We followed some necessary security procedures, then made our way to Mr. Weasley's small office. I was astonished by everything I saw on the way there. Magic was incredible, fascinating. It was amazing that the wizarding world could hide something like the Ministry in plain sight. Sure, I had seen many things far more amazing than this- namely Olympus- but it was amazing that mortals could do this. Annabeth would have adored the architecture. So Mr. Weasley's office seemed even shabbier than it was when we stepped into it. I couldn't help feeling a twinge of sympathy for the man, even though he obviously loved his job. After a little while, an old wheezing man that Mr. Weasley introduced as his coworker Perkins rushed in, panting.

"It's... The Potter boy's hearing... It's been moved down to old courtroom ten at eight o'clock!" Perkins said frantically, completely winded.

"What?! But then we should have been there five minutes ago!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed. He and Harry ran out of the room in a panic. I sighed and followed. My calming charmspeak had already worn off... I had to remember to be more forceful with wizards.

**Harry's POV:**

"Go on in, Harry." Piper nudged me forward. I gasped when I saw the courtroom- it was the same one that I had seen in Dumbledore's Pensieve- the Azkaban trials! I looked back at Piper and was amazed to see that she didn't seem nervous at all, even with everyone staring at her in awe. She looked like an innocent twelve year old in that getup. I just hoped it would be effective. She gave the Wizengamot members a wink and a sweet smile. More than one person person- mostly men- froze, practically falling over as I sat down in the chained chair. Thank god the chains didn't bind me as they had in Dumbledore's Pensieve. After recovering, Fudge began the court proceedings. It certainly didn't ease my nerves that the Minister himself was questioning me.

"-Witness for the defense, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore." said a quiet voice behind me when Fudge paused. I whirled around and my heart leapt when I saw Dumbledore. He made no acknowledgement towards me, but I was relieved he was there, no matter how confident Piper was.

"And Piper McLean." Piper announced herself in a clear, charming voice. The mouths of several Wizengamot members were hanging open.

"And... er... yes, well... right! Well then. The charges. Yes." Fudge stuttered. I could have sworn I saw Dumbledore give Piper a wink, and I felt a little annoyed that he had looked at her, but not me. But then Fudge began reading the charges and insignificant feelings like annoyance vanished and were replaced by anxiety. Every question made me look bad, and I had to answer honestly, but they kept cutting me off before I could explain! And the worst was that Piper just stood there, not saying a word. So much for getting me out of the situation victorious. In the end, I finally had enough.

"IT WAS BECAUSE OF THE DEMENTORS! There were two dementors down that alleyway and they went for me and my cousin!" I yelled. Madam Bones gasped at my outburst. But Fudge just smirked unpleasantly and made a little snide remark about me looking for attention. I fumed. But that's when Piper stood up...

**Piper's POV:**

"It's true. I was there." I spoke up, pouring charmspeak into every syllable. My voice echoed through the room. "My friends and I were traveling to Mrs. Figg's house, and went through the alleyway as a shortcut. Harry and his cousin happened to be there. Suddenly, there a was a horrible cold feeling..." I used my most convincingly terrified voice to show them I was just a scared, innocent, little girl- "and I felt as though I would never be happy again. Then, a dementor came, and it swooped through the alleyway, heading straight for Harry and his cousin. Another dementor came up behind me and my friends. We were frantic, as we didn't know how to fight them- we hadn't even entered fifth year, you know. But then Harry, concerned for our safety, decided to put his career on the line. He produced a patronus to save our souls, and he's a hero. He should be _rewarded_, not _punished_. His motives justify his actions, and I would be very grateful if he were cleared of all charges for being my hero." I gave them my most charming and sweet smile, directing it at the men in particular. I could tell most of them were under my spell, and I stepped back, satisfied. Fudge seemed unable to speak. It was clear he was trying to break from my charmspeak, but I doubted he would. I glanced at Harry. He was staring at me in awe. With a sigh, I realized I was emitting a faint pink glow. _Mom!_

"Hem, hem." A hideously frilly and pink toad-woman moved out from the shadows. It was the woman that Fudge had announced as his senior undersecretary, Dolores Umbridge. She was one of the few who hadn't fallen under my words. I couldn't use too much power, after all, or they, as wizards, would notice something was wrong later on. That was the tricky part- using enough to convince them, but not too much.

"But why, Ms. McClean, would two dementors just happen to be wandering around in a muggle town?"

**Harry's POV:**

"SOMEONE DID SEND THE DEMENTORS! IT WAS VOL-" Piper silenced me with a glare. I flushed. It was just so frustrating that nobody believed me.

"Ms. Umbridge, I was simply expressing his confidence that this matter will not go unnoticed by the Ministry." Piper said sweetly. Most of the Wizengamot members nodded and murmured in approval. Then, Piper got a mischievous look in her eye. "Oh, Ms. Umbridge, are you all right? You look _dreadfully_ tired..." Piper seemed to draw out her words, putting emphasis on them. I suddenly felt exhausted. The toad yawned. "You look overworked... You should probably _take a nap_ when you get home, you know? Sleep is vital for your health." The odious woman promptly collapsed and started snoring. I stared at Piper. Who was this girl? Nobody else seemed to think anything was wrong, but Dumbledore looked amused. Piper turned around to me and winked.

"As I was saying, before Ms. Umbridge made it clear that she wasn't interested in what I had to say..." Piper pouted and several of the men glared at the sleeping toad, "I'm sure this matter won't go unnoticed." Fudge finally seemed to find his voice.

"THERE ARE NO DEMENTORS OUTSIDE OF MINISTRY CONTROL!" He exploded. It seemed to take a lot of effort to break out of Piper's charm... or whatever she was doing.

"Which is why, as Ms. McClean has repeated several times already, we are all confident the Ministry will take investigate this matter." Dumbledore replied calmly. Fudge's face was an Uncle Vernon shade of magenta.

"Look, this hearing isn't even about the dementors, it's about the boy and why he used magic in the presence of a muggle!" Fudge yelled angrily. "And-"

"Because it is evident that Harry was performing magic under life- threatening circumstances, by law he should be cleared. _Of all charges._" Piper interrupted in a friendly tone. Fudge spluttered like a fish out of water, apparently unable to talk over Piper.

"All in favor of clearing the accused of all charges?" I looked up at Madam Bones, hardly daring to believe my luck. Everyone's hand was raised- except for the Minister's, although his hand, strangely, seemed to be struggling to rise against its owner's wishes.

"Ah- uh- very well then, cleared of all charges." Fudge muttered, his visage still that brilliant shade of crimson. Everyone began talking and getting their things together. Dumbledore didn't give me a second glance as he left, which was more than a little irritating, not to mention worrying. Had I done something wrong? But then Piper grabbed my arm and pulled me up.

"Come _on_, Harry." We left the courtroom. "Cleared of all charges!" Piper said, beaming, to an anxious Mr. Weasley waiting outside the door.

"Oh, well done, Piper! Everyone will be so pleased!" Suddenly it hit me that I was cleared. I was cleared, and I would be _going back to Hogwarts_.

"Hey, can I stop by the ladies' room really quickly? I _abbhor_ wearing dresses and now I can finally get this ridiculous makeup off of me." Piper said, holding up a small beaded handbag.

"Sure, the loo's on the left." Mr. Weasley told her.

"It really was like she charmed the Wizengamot into clearing me..." I muttered. Mr. Weasley looked at me, unconcerned.

"Yes, well Dumbledore did mention that she had a gift for being persuasive." We were both lost in thought for a bit.

"No, I mean she made my worst opposer _fall asleep_." I said in disbelief. Mr. Weasley looked at me, startled.

"Yeah... I think you guys should forget about that..." Piper came back. I jumped. She had changed fast! Her arrival made me forget about what I had been talking about. With the makeup off and in normal street clothes, I could _finally_ look at Piper without blushing. But I would never be able to forget that girl in the dress... This was the first time I appreciated that beauty could be powerful.

On the way out, we passed by Lucius Malfoy talking to Fudge. Piper immediately glared at Malfoy with dislike, raising my opinion of her even higher. I couldn't believe that after I had just told people that the Malfoys were Death Eaters, he was still allowed in the Ministry.

Piper yawned. "I'm exhausted. Let's go home." she said, and Mr. Weasley nodded in sympathy. It must have been difficult having to adjust to our time zone, and it must have taken a lot out of Piper to get me cleared .

**A/N: Please review! Also, if any of you have a Wattpad, I would love it if you guys could go check out my original story ****_Invisible_****. My account is tobiastris_foursix. :) **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait and the short/boring chapter... but it's finally summer so I'll try to write longer chapters now and update quicker! Oh, and thanks to one of you who pointed out that I spelled Piper's last name wrong!  
**

**Jason's POV:**

Pretty much every person present in Grimmauld Place was waiting anxiously for the return of Piper, Harry, and Mr. Weasley. Honestly, I didn't care all too much about the whole Hogwarts thing, but if Harry was expelled, the rest of us would have to come up with some excuse to stay out of Hogwarts as well, so we could protect Harry. And that would probably be impossible, even for Piper.

The old door opened with an audible creak, and Piper strolled in with her usual radiant confidence. I could practically hear the sighs of relief. "Have fun, beauty queen?" Leo winked at Piper as the magical folk in the house crowded around Harry with cheers and congratulations.

"The witches and wizards were a lot easier to charmspeak than I thought- they were almost like regular mortals," Piper said with an easy smile. Still, she seemed a little tired. It was no wonder; she _had_ just used nonstop charmspeak for over an hour.

"Where are Percy and Annabeth?" Piper asked, her eyebrows knitting in concern.

I sighed. "They had another flashback. This time it was Percy... and you know how he is after a flashback. He won't come out, and Annabeth's in there with him," I said sadly. I pulled Piper into my arms as her concern visibly heightened.

"I don't think sleeping in new places is helping those two," Hazel said quietly. "They used to sleep in the Poseidon cabin together, right?" We nodded. "There was probably some magic in there that kept them from having such terrible nightmares... I'm guessing it will only get worse when we get to Hogwarts," she predicted thoughtfully with a dark look.

"Come on, guys! This is a happy occasion! Beauty queen just won against a bunch of freaky old dudes! Let's go celebrate." Leo interrupted with a grin. His hand burst into flame and he waved it in front of our faces. Frank yelped. Luckily the mortals were in the dining room.

"_LEO VALDEZ_! You almost blew our cover! _Again._" Piper hissed.

"Yeah, be careful with that fire." Frank said, patting the place I knew his piece of wood was stowed.

Leo winked at him. "Well, it got your attention, didn't it?' With a shake of my head, I set off into the dining room for lunch with the others close behind.

The next few days passed by in a blur. The werewolf, Lupin, took the seven of us to "diagonally" (don't ask) to buy books and potions ingredients and such. Piper, Leo and I kept looking at him suspiciously, but he seemed genuinely good, nothing like Lycaon, the first werewolf. I asked him if he knew about Lupa and he just stared at me- I suppose not. Maybe wizard werewolves were different from Roman werewolves. Or Greek werewolves. Whichever. It was rather coincidental that Remus Lupin shared the name of the brother of the founder of Rome. But for the moment, I was pretty sure it was just a coincidence.

We didn't have to visit Madame Malkin's. That was our deal with Dumbledore. Piper had... _convinced_ the professor to allow us to wear our usual street clothes, perhaps with a cloak when necessary. We were adamant in refusal to wear dresses- sorry, _robes_. Besides the fact that they would be embarrasing and downright strange, how would we fight in them?

Hermione and Ron became "prefects", which seemed sort of like centurions. I noticed that Harry seemed a little envious, and I guess I could connect. Romans are generally always looking for positions of power. Okay, not all of us are like Octavian, but power is important.

A few days later, at last, it was time for us to depart for Hogwarts.

**Leo's POV:**

"Leo... Wake up..." Jason was shaking me, none too gently. I ignored the son of the supreme lord of the universe with a dignified burrowing of my head into the pillow.

"You're not Piper. You can't control me." I muttered when he shook me harder.

_FWOP._

Superman hit me with a pillow that he probably levitated from his bed. Show off.

"LEO. WAKE UP. WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE FOR THE TRAIN AND OUR QUEST WILL BE OVER."

"Goody-two-shoes... Stupid Romans." I muttered. Frank made a sort of indignant grumbling noise as I sighed and got up. "I toiled all night, every night on the Argo II to save your sorry butts and now you dare to wake me up early?" my protests were not acknowledged.

One hour later, we were ready to go. After a disappointingly healthy and nutritious breakfast. We were escorted by several members of the order, including Sirius in dog form. (I've seriously got to get him to teach me that trick.) Annabeth and Hermione had nearly identical looks of disapproval at that. Those two were _so_ creepily similar. But it was pretty clear that Hermione hated Annabeth's guts, which didn't seem to bother the scariest blonde in the world.

I was really surprised when we went to a normal looking mortal train station. Nobody else seemed too startled, though. I guess this was in those books that I didn't pay any attention to when Annabeth was explaining them to me and Percy. I didn't even know people still rode trains to get around places. I guess England's a little behind. We didn't go anywhere special, just walked to platform nine, where we stopped.

"Fred and George, you two go first." Mrs. Weasley said anxiously. She seemed to be expecting someone to attack Harry. The two twins ran towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten, and my forhead wrinkled in confusion, sure that it was one of their jokes. Right before they crashed and I was about to shout a warning, they disappeared.

"_Whoa_! AWESOME! I wanna try that! How do you do it?" I asked eagerly. As Tonks explained, Annabeth gave me an 'if-you-had-payed-attention-when-I-was-summarizing-the-books-for-you-then-you-would-have-known look. Well how was I supposed to remember a small detail like people dissolving when hitting a brick barrier?

When it was my turn, I ran with my cart thingy (trolley?) at the bricks and closed my eyes for impact. Impact never came. When I opened my eyes, I couldn't help gasping a bit.

I was in seemingly an entirely separate train station, and there was a glossy red train that was simply screaming my name. I could sense the engine humming with power. I HAD to try steering that thing. The others soon appeared behind me. Hazel grinned at my expression and pointed at my hair, which was smoking a bit. I looked around with wide eyes to make sure none of the wizarding folk had noticed as I put it out sheepishly.

Just as we were about to board the train, I noticed Annabeth and Percy running off somewhere, weaving through the crowd at the speed of Arion. I made to follow them, but Hazel held me back and gestured for me to get on the train and not worry about them.

**Frank's POV:**

When we got on the train, Hermione and Ron left to go do their prefect duties. I didn't really understand what was so great about being a prefect. Harry and Ginny walked ahead of the rest of us to find an empty compartment. A boy holding a strange looking plant had joined them; I assumed he was the Neville in Rowling's books based on his appearance and slightly timid expression. Sadly, I think I looked like that before stupid Mars put that blessing on me the day Nico turned into a plant.

"Where are Percy and Annabeth?" Piper asked with concern as we walked down the hallway. Just then, they appeared behind us, Annabeth supporting Percy.

"Telekhine." Annabeth murmured to us in explanation. I winced in sympathy.

"Is Percy alright?" Piper asked softly.

"Well, he defeated it in about a second, but..." Annabeth trailed off, but we all knew what she meant. Percy's mom had been killed by a telekhine. We had all been there. It was the first time I had seen Percy cry, and I hoped with all my heart that it would be the last. On this quest, I knew, Hecate had masked our scents with Mist, but it was inevitable that a couple monsters would still find us.

"Here's an empty compartment!" Ginny declared from up ahead. Neville mumbled something. "Oh, don't be ridiculous, it's just Loony- Luna- Lovegood in there."

A second later, we figured why she was nicknamed "Loony". Luna was a peculiar girl. She was sitting in the train compartment calmly reading a magazine upside down, with her wand stuck behind her ear like a pencil. She had white-blond hair and blue eyes, and was wearing a bottle cap necklace. We introduced ourselves, and she nodded serenely, then went back to her magazine.

"So... Neville... What's that plant you're holding?" Piper asked, breaking the awkward silence. I winced, but thankfully nobody questioned Piper knowing Neville's name ahead of time.

"Oh, this? It's a Mimbulus Mimbletonia. It's extremely rare." The boy said proudly. "It has unique defense mechanisms. He gave the plant a sharp jab, and black goo squirted out of it, covering everyone. Leo yelped, and suddenly we were all doused in powerful water. Percy looked embarrassed, and a litle horrified. Annabeth was murmuring a reassurance to him. I noticed that although he was clean, he was dry, and prayed the mortals wouldn't.

"Where did that water come from?" Ginny asked in surprise while Neville rushed to explain that _stinksap_ was completely harmless.

"Oh, Percy can use several spells nonverbally. He specializes in aguamenti." Piper said quickly. Annabeth pulled out her own wand and dried us all up before someone could notice there wasn't a drop of water on Percy. Just then, the compartment door banged open.

**Hermione's POV:**

"Oh, I'm _starving_!" Ron moaned as soon as he entered the train compartment with the Americans, Ginny, Neville, Harry, and a girl I recognized from Ravenclaw. I rolled my eyes. He was always thinking about food.

"Guess who the Slytherin prefects are?" I grimaced.

"Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson." Ron muttered darkly. Percy groaned. I looked at him in surprise.

"Oh, um... It's just that I haven't heard good things about Slytherin." He told me hastily. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. I noticed that he was holding onto Annabeth again- those two were strangely romantically advanced for fifteen year olds... They seemed almost like a married teenage couple, and that was only one of the many things I found unsettling about their behavior. I didn't trust them, not one bit.

Still lost in thought, I vaguely noticed Malfoy come in. I tuned in just in time to hear Harry say in that quietly sarcastic way of his, "But you, unlike me, are a git, so get out and leave us alone." I laughed loudly. I hated that Draco Malfoy, especially after third year.

"Tell me, Potter, how does it feel being second-best to Weasley?" Malfoy sneered.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" I snapped. He only smirked. The Americans were all glaring at him along with the rest of us.

"It seems I've struck a nerve. Well, watch yourself, Potter, for I will be... _dogging _your footsteps closely from here on out." He said with a malicious look. I stood up angrily. Annabeth had taken out a dagger... no, her wand. A dagger? I shook my head to clear it and walked over to Malfoy furiously.

"GET OUT!" I pushed him out of the compartment and slammed the sliding door shut. I exchanged an alarmed glance with Harry. Had his choice of words been intentional? Annabeth was whispering urgently to the other Americans. She looked up at me, and I realized she had noticed, too. I still didn't trust her or any of her friends, but at least I knew she was on our side where Sirius was concerned.

**A/N: We are (very) slowly veering off the canon train! Please give feedback! Remember, reviews are what keep me updating. :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Okay, this chapter is also really short but I'm posting two in one day so I hope it makes up for it.**

**Percy's POV:**

Malfoy felt like a monster to me. I knew he was probably just a harmless, spoiled, stuck up, and very mortal doucheface, but I already hated him enough to want to run riptide through him a couple times. Just to make sure he wasn't a monster, right? Okay, maybe I was just in a bad mood because of the telekhine. I had killed it quickly, but... the stupid memories had overwhelmed me. Tartarus, _mom_... it had just been too much. Annabeth had been forced to support me all the way to the train. I hated being so weak and adding another burden to Annabeth's already very full load. I knew she didn't mind, but it killed me to be anything but a comfort to her. She kept glancing at me in concern as the train ride went on. I knew I was staying uncharacteristically silent, but honestly, I really wasn't in the mood to talk. And I had no idea what the others were talking about the entire time.

Far too quickly, the train stopped and we were forced to get off and go down to the carriages. It was a short walk, but a miserable one. It was raining, which I didn't mind, of course, but I had to consciously allow myself to get as soaked as the others were. And the weather was just downright depressing. Our feet made disgusting squishing noises that reminded me of countless monsters as we trudged down to the carriages on the muddy, rough path.

_My lord. It is an honor to meet you._ I heard a foreign voice in my mind when we finally reached the old-fashioned vehicles. I whirled around to see these weird skeletal black horse _things_ harnessed to the carriages.

"Oh, ummm, hey," I mumbled when I got over the shock. I winced; I hadn't meant to speak out loud.

"Who are you talking to, Percy?" Hermione asked with narrowed eyes. I gestured behind me sheepishly, but was met with blank expressions. It took me a while to understand that Hermione, and some of the other mortals, couldn't see them.

"What are they?" Harry asked me, his eyes wide. He looked panicked, like he was terrified he had lost his mind. I didn't blame him. All his friends were looking bewildered. The horses spoke in my head again, in their weird, scratchy mental voices. Yes, horses have different voices in my mind, just like people do when they speak aloud. _We're threstrals, lord._ I repeated this to the others as we all climbed into the magically enlarged carriage. Thankfully nobody asked how I knew that. Hermione gasped, her eyes alight.

"_That's_ why we can't see them!" She exclaimed. "Only those who have seen death can see thestrals; I've read all about them!" Of course she had. "Who can see them here?" She asked with interest, making the expressions of several of us darken. And I thought _Ron_ was the tactless one. Harry somberly raised his hand. That crazy girl, Luna, did too. The seven of us reluctantly followed. Hermione gave us a slightly suspicious, somewhat pitying look.

"Can we talk about something else?" I asked pointedly into the awkward silence. Annabeth's eyes had glazed over. I placed my hand gently on hers, bringing her carefully back to the present. Hermione was still frowning at us. I wished she hadn't heard me talking to the thestrals; that girl was practically an Athena kid and I was worried she'd find out about us...

**Ron's POV: **

I could only think about two things as we entered the Great Hall. My grumbling stomach, and what houses the Americans would be sorted into. I just hoped that beautiful girl- no, goddess- Piper would be in Gryffindor. I mean, I knew she had that hunky boyfriend of hers, but these types of relationships come and go, right?

The Americans, not knowing where to sit, followed us to the Gryffindor table. Then, the sorting began. I couldn't help complaining as the Sorting Hat took its time while my stomach moaned pitifully. I was _starving_. Granted, I'm usually starving. Finally, Dumbledore stood up to make his hopefully short speech before the feast.

"Welcome, to all new students, and welcome back, to all old students. Now, I'm sure you're all starving, but this year, I have one announcement to make first," Dumbledore said. I groaned, and saw Hermione roll her eyes at me out of the corner of my own eye. "This year we will have seven American exchange students. They are all in their fifth year," he continued. "They will all be Gryffindors," I heard Percy breathe a sight of relief, "for past experiences have made it evident that they are courageous beyond our wildest dreams. Now, tuck in!" Dumbledore clapped his hands and platters of food appeared. I grinned and started heaping loads of food onto my plate.

"Courageous beyond our wildest dreams?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows furrowed and a look of intense concentration on her face.

"Er-my-nee, 'elax!" I mumbled through a mouth stuffed with delicious dishes. Hermione gave me a look of utter disgust and sighed before she started to eat.

"How do you think Harry will react when people started treating him weirdly? I mean, he hasn't seen what the Daily Prophet's been writing about him..." Hermione whispered in a low voice to me as Harry spoke with one of the Americans. I'm not good at remembering names, much less seven at once.

"Aw, come on, Harry's faced loads of worse stuff. Remember second year when everyone thought he was the Heir of Slytherin?" I reassured her once I had swallowed the nearly choking amounts of food in my mouth. Hermione sighed again but didn't say anything else.

**A/N: Please reveiw! If I get a lot of specific feedback I might post another chapter tomorrow or on Saturday! ;) Oh, and did I mention we finally get to see more Caleo in the next chapter?  
**


	11. Bonus Chapter: A Deleted Scene

**A/N: Okay guys... I actually ended up having fun on my vacation so I didn't get to writing much as I had promised. But because I feel really bad, I'm posting this chapter I wrote a while back that I took out of the story because I decided to kill of Sally. *maniacal laughter* Anyways, you guys seem to enjoy the feels destroying Percabeth scenes so... here's Percy and Annabeth visiting Sally and Paul after the war. I apologize for the typos, lack of editing, and the ****_HORRIBLE_**** writing; I wrote this a year ago and I was too lazy to read over it and edit it. xD**

**Sally's POV:**

I was sitting at my desk, trying to overcome a particularly nasty bout of writers' block. Ideas had been scarce ever since my main source of inspiration had left for Rome on the Argo II. With a sigh, I picked up one of the photos neatly placed on my desk. It was a picture of Annabeth and Percy, right after the Second Titan War. I was extremely worried about them- Paul was too. The last time Percy had iris-messaged me, he had assured me that he would probably be home soon. That was a month ago. I knew Gaea must not have won yet, because, well, the world was still intact, but it was unlike Percy to be silent for so long...

_one hour later_

I awoke from my nap when I heard the door open. Assuming it was Paul coming home from work, I headed towards the kitchen, yawning.

"Hi, honey," I called, "I fell asleep but I'll make dinner now."

"Sally, come here." Paul's voice sounded urgent, so I walked quickly out of the kitchen and towards the door.

"What's wr-"I gasped when I saw Percy supporting Annabeth in the doorway, with countless fresh scars and wounds. His shirt had horrible claw marks across the front, and was torn to shreds. They were both covered in grime and dirt and blood, looking painfully thin. Paul was staring at them sadly, wide-eyed. Apparently they had appeared right after he had gotten home.

"Hi, mom." Percy whispered weakly. "I'm so sorry I haven't contacted you in so long..." My heart wrenched when I heard his voice crack slightly at the end.

"Oh my goodness, what happened to you two?" I asked in horror. I ran up to the pair, throwing my arms around their broken, bone-thin bodies. I felt Annabeth wince and withdrew immediately.

"Mrs. Jackson, could we stay for a bit? We're kind of tired, after... after..." The poor girl faltered.

"Of course, dear. And call me Sally. Why don't you two go wash up and by the time you're done I'll have dinner ready." I suggested, still partly in shock. Percy nodded, murmuring thanks. Together they headed towards the bathroom. I turned around, exchanging a worried glance with Paul. Where had they been and why were they in such bad shape?

When Percy and Annabeth emerged from the shower, their hair was wet and they were wearing fresh clothes. Annabeth had borrowed a t-shirt and sweatpants from Percy, while Percy was wearing a hoodie sweatshirt and sweatpants. It broke my heart to see how loosely the clothing hung off of them; they had both lost so much weight. Once again, I wondered where on earth they could have been. Even though they were clean, they looked, if possible, even worse than before. With the blood and dirt washed off, I could clearly see all of the visible injuries- they looked like they had recently fought an army of monsters with no weapons. Annabeth even had horribly deep scratch marks on her face, like some huge animal had taken a swipe at her. Their every move seemed to be painful and take effort. But the worst was the dejected look on their faces- these two had clearly been through way too much in the past month.

Percy came over and gave me a hug right away as Annabeth sat down. I could feel that his arms were still strong despite his weight loss. A wave of melancholy washed over me when I realized how tall he was. What had happened to my little boy?

"Percy, go ahead and sit down, alright? I need to set the table." I murmured, gently removing his arms around me. He nodded.

"I've missed you so much, mom." He said in a broken sort of voice. I swallowed a sob rising in my throat, managing a small smile instead. As soon as Paul came in and he and I sat down, Annabeth and Percy began asking question after question, never giving us a chance to ask them where they'd been. Whenever Paul or I opened our mouths at a pause in the conversation, those two would immediately jump to another topic. I exchanged a glance with Paul. What had they been through that was so bad that they needed to hide it from us? To my distress, I began to notice some things that were worrying about their behavior.

I saw that Percy and Annabeth hadn't let go of each other's hand since they'd sat down, and kept glancing at each other as if to reassure each other. They just seemed so heartbreakingly dependent on each other. And when a bird landed on the window, both of them flinched, and Percy had pulled Annabeth closer to him in a hug. When Paul's phone vibrated, alerting him of an email, Annabeth tensed up and Percy's hand jumped to where he kept his sword. My eyes filled with tears whenever I looked into their faces too closely. They looked so tortured... So broken beyond repair.

When I brought out the freshly made blue chocolate chip cookies, I thought Percy was going to cry.

"Is this real?" My brave little soldier asked in shock. "Am I going to wake up, in the dark, with some monster's claws at my throat?" He whispered hoarsely. Just then, Annabeth's eyes glazed over. She began twitching horribly, as though she were having a fit. Percy jumped up immediately and knelt at Annabeth's side, squeezing her hand gently.

"PERCY!" Annabeth screamed. It was a scream of terror, of agony, of despair. Paul looked at me, and we exchanged a horrified look.

"Shhh... Shhh... Annabeth, I'm here, I'm here!" We're together, we're safe, we're safe now... We're out and nothing is ever going to hurt you again..." Percy's quiet voice was filled with pain as Annabeth screamed again. Slowly, the poor girl's shrieks subsided to quiet sobs and whimpers.

"Oh, Percy..." She whispered into his chest, shaking violently.

"I know, I know, Annabeth... I love you." Percy murmured into her hair. Finally, when the both of them calmed down, I had to ask the question that had been torturing me the entire night. - "Percy... Where have you been, and what's happened to you?" I gasped, tears threatening to spill over. I had never seen anyone look so broken, and to see my son and his girlfriend who I considered my daughter like this made my heart clench as though someone were dragging it down. - Percy looked up, his cheeks wet with his own sorrow. "T-t-t-tartarus." he whispered so softly that I almost didn't hear him.

Hearing my heroically courageous son stammer that one word out nearly stopped my heart. I vaguely heard Paul draw in a sharp breath, but all my focus was on Percy and Annabeth. Although I didn't want to believe my baby, it made perfect sense. It explained why he and Annabeth had arrived looking like they had been caught in a hurricane of monsters, why they were so weary and broken, why they seemed so cautious and terrified of everything now, and why they seemed so utterly dependent on each other. The tears I had been holding back since I saw them suddenly spilled over. I rushed over to the two teenagers huddled on the ground and pulled them into my arms gently.

"You're safe now, you're safe now..." I whispered, trying to cease the tears streaming down my face.

"I'm so sorry, m-mom..." Percy whispered, his voice dry and full of pain beyond anything I could imagine.

"Oh, Percy... can you and Annabeth stay for a while?" I finally choked out, pleading. I couldn't bear the thought of letting them go after knowing what they had gone through now- or imagining what they had gone through. As far as I knew, no heroes had ever survived Tartarus before, much less two teenagers.

Annabeth spoke up. "Yeah, Chiron said that we could stay for a week before going back to camp..." Her voice was a little hoarse and worn after her flashback that had terrified us all.

I gave her another small hug, then smiled weakly through my tears. "I'm so glad both of you are home and safe." I whispered. But who knew if they would ever be the same again...


End file.
